Expressions

An essay, "Fallen Idols," by Margo Rabb in the New York Times book section, describes the hazards of meeting your favorite authors. You get to meet a writer whose book has shaped your life and discover that he is rude, drunken, lecherous. Or all three. The first half of the essay describes this admiration-to-disenchantment sequence as a "celebrity crush," and the second half explores a more nuanced and mature understanding of the complicated relationship between the person and the work.

As their corporate partners express concern about the Ray Rice case, the Ravens have been reaching out — courting them anew — to try to ensure that dozens of long-held relationships and the millions in revenue they provide remain intact. In the strongest-worded statement from a Ravens sponsor yet, Southwest Airlines on Monday called the allegations of misconduct by NFL players "disturbing," adding that it was ready to "take prompt action," depending on the course of events. The club, which sent an open message to sponsors and fans Monday, wants to be certain its fabric of about 100 sponsors — both local and national firms — does not begin to unravel over questions surrounding its handling of the Rice situation.

I was both moved and disheartened by Robert Greene's expressions that gay marriage legislation garners traditional family values as disposable ("Gay marriage contradicts God's word," March 1). I am oddly grateful that he has taken the time to express views that oppose mine, which he felt were missing from The Baltimore Sun. In doing so he does us all a favor to see the insanity of this argument. I stand as strongly support of his expression of his views as I do in the belief that there is so much irrational fear of the unknown in this debate that equality may, in the long-run, lose out to the segregation of moral concern.

City officials said Thursday they are investigating a fish kill in a Northeast Baltimore creek that flows through Herring Run Park , where users of the park and streamside trail expressed dismay. "This is ridiculous," said Donald Cooper, who stopped while riding his bike to peer at the dead fish littering the stream bottom beneath the Harford Road overpass. Cooper, 52, who lives nearby, said a couple days before, he'd brought his nephew to the park to see the fish, which he said then were "swimming all over the place...Now they're all dead.

VIENNA, Va. -- George Bernard Shaw once wrote that England and America are two countries divided by a common language. Pity I didn't take note as I arrived in America, relieved that there was no new language and no new culture to learn. As far as I was concerned, I could be at home. Britain, after all, might be mistaken for a mini-America these days: McDonald's, Hollywood movies, Disney-style theme parks. From the amount of American coverage in the British media, you would think the Atlantic Ocean didn't exist.

A photograph snapped in 1947 shows a small blond boy in a Cub Scout uniform looking squarely into the camera. Liberal amounts of Wildroot gel have been applied to his hair, which goes up over his forehead in a pompadour — just like his idol, Elvis Presley. The young Gary Vikan is standing directly in front of a framed reproduction of Warner Sallman's iconic 1941 painting, "Head of Christ," and Jesus appears to be whispering something into the 10-year-old's right ear. The photo is very nearly a time capsule, or a message in a bottle.

This week, thousands of visitors will converge on Chincoteague Island to watch as wild ponies swim 200 yards across the Assateague Island Channel. The annual pony swim takes all of about three minutes. For visitors to the area, that's a good thing. It leaves plenty of time to explore Chincoteague's other charms. I have vacationed on the island since childhood, having grown up in a family that never enjoyed crowded, popular beach destinations. For summer getaways, we opted for Chincoteague's quiet, wildlife-surrounded beaches.

Folks have strong feelings about grocery store express lines. They have been "sharing" these feelings with me since I wrote a recent column telling how, when faced with a 30-minute backup at the only other open checkout line, I attempted to go through a 10-items-or-less line toting 13 items. The checker wouldn't ring me up. I stormed out of the store.Basically there are two camps on the express-line issue. One camp believes I was absolutely wrong. Rules are rules, they say. They add that violators like me should be reprimanded for slowing down the line.

General Services Administration officials said Wednesday they had received nearly three dozen responses to a request for ideas about a new FBI headquarters, a potentially lucrative development that Maryland leaders hope to land in Prince George's County. State and local officials have been working behind the scenes for months to lure the FBI to Maryland if the agency leaves its 38-year-old headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, in downtown Washington. The state is competing with Virginia and Washington for the roughly 11,000 jobs associated with the facility.

The several dozen colorful pinwheels adorning the main stairwell at Owings Mills High School are merely a drop in the bucket of the more than 3.5 million similar student-made pinwheels that were on display in over 3,500 locations in the United States and elsewhere on Wednesday, Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace. "We are a diverse school. We have students with a lot of different backgrounds here, and we wanted everybody to be able to express themselves and get on the same page with this project," said art teacher Mary Elizabeth Dickman, who launched the annual Pinwheels for Peace project at Owings Mills High four years ago. "Even though it started out as a voluntary project, everybody wanted to do it, so it became a class project.

A city councilman is questioning a $1.6 million deal for a St. Louis company to provide prescription drugs to city workers, arguing that the work should go to local pharmacies. City Councilman Robert W. Curran said St. Louis-based Express Scripts, which holds a multimillion-dollar contract to provide prescription drug benefits to Baltimore City employees, has engaged in "deceptive practices," including overbilling the city for prescription drugs a decade ago. "Express Scripts did shortchange us," Curran told the city's spending panel Wednesday morning during a pre-meeting in a City Hall conference room.

The Morgan State secondary that took the field at Hughes Stadium on Wednesday with the rest of the first defense consisted of junior cornerbacks DeShaun Summers and Delonta Hall, junior free safety Peterson Janvier and senior strong safety Nathan Ayers. Of that foursome, however, only Ayers started a game last season. The lack of starting experience in the defensive backfield might be alarming to some, but coach Lee Hull said it doesn't bother him. “They're a little green, but I'm not too worried about them,” Hull said after Wednesday's practice.

A hypothetical scenario: Your little boy lies in a hospital bed, stricken by a mysterious, potentially fatal disease. You are frightened and in despair. But your community rallies around you. Soon, the whole town is talking about your ordeal. Neighbors you've never spoken to send cards. Co-workers you've never socialized with send encouraging text messages. None of it changes the objective fact of your son's condition, doesn't kill a virus, lessen a fever or ease his pain.

"Freedom of expression is the heartbeat of our university," Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels and Provost Robert C. Lieberman declared in an email this month announcing a new Task Force on Academic Freedom that will formulate an "official set of principles that can give expression to our core values in this area. " The email makes the case for JHU's "special kinship with academic freedom" through one particular example: Philosophy professor Arthur Lovejoy's disagreement with a trustee while at Stanford had earned him a "troublemaker" reputation, but JHU hired him anyway.

A Senate committee voted to approve Gov. Martin O'Malley's nomination of a former employee of a New Jersey utility company to the Public Service Commission over the protest of a group of Montgomery County consumers. Opponents expressed concern that Anne E. Hoskins, who was appointed to the powerful regulatory body in August, would be too supportive of power companies and not sympathetic to ratepayers. Sen. Delores G. Kelley, chair of the Executive Nominations Committee, said she had received letters supporting and opposing Hoskins' continued service on the PSC. Hoskins has been serving in a provisional capacity since her appointment.

Last spring, the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS), an organization comprised of seventeen professional mathematics societies, stated their position with regard to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). The CBMS position statement is provided herein: "In a great act of foresight for this nation, most of the states have now adopted a consistent set of expectations for school mathematics, called the Common Core State Standards. Building on long years of work, the Common Core State Standards are an auspicious advance in mathematics education.

The fall cocktail menu at B&O Brassiere proves that it takes more than just apple and pumpkin flavors to capture the season. "I wanted to create a drink that screamed fall - something that was rich and yet lively," head bartender and mixologist Brendan Dorr explains. His spirited concoction, the Orchard Express, a twist on the brandy-and-cognac-heavy Sidecar, speaks to both. The Express is a zippy infusion of more sophisticated autumnal tastes. The base spirit is still cognac - Remy Martin VS - but Dorr lightens the mood with two key ingredients: a Rothman & Winter apricot cordial and Cocchi Barolo Chinato.

The Towson football team will practice Friday night for the first time since Christmas, and there is considerable uncertainty over whether senior quarterback Peter Athens will be able to participate. If he can't, sophomore Connor Frazier figures to take most of the reps with the first-team offense, and coach Rob Ambrose said coaches and players are very confident in his ability to lead the No. 7 seed Tigers. Frazier would be making his first career start against No. 1 seed and reigning back-to-back national champion North Dakota State in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision title game on Jan. 4 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Tex. “I have no worries about that whatsoever,” Ambrose said Friday afternoon during a conference call.

Gayle Danley called the Wilde Lake Middle School eighth-graders "poets," a label that sounded hip and eclectic and, by the tone of her fiery prose, non-negotiable. After introducing them to the world of "poetry slam" - competitions involving artists who recite their original works - the former national and international slam champion sought a way last week to bring out the teens' inner muses. "Pick up the pencils and write the words: 'You can't do that to me!'" commanded Danley, a Baltimore resident and artist-in-residence who visits middle schools through Baltimore and Washington, teaching students to use poetry to express themselves about the more pressing issues in their lives.